The invention generally relates to inflatable towable devices and, more particularly, to inflatable towable devices capable of hovering and techniques for their construction.
Inflatable devices for recreational water or snow use exist. One category of such devices, referred to as “personal watercraft (PWC)” or “towables,” are designed to be towed behind a boat or other vehicle. These towable devices typically support one or more persons and include many designs ranging from tire inner tubes to more complex designs. The towable devices are designed to travel or skim across the surface of the water while occasionally bouncing off the surface when encountering a wave or in the water. When the towable devices are towed at higher speeds, the impact of the wave and wake bounces can be great.
Such impacts could be minimized by causing the inflatable towable device to lift off the surface of the water for extended distances, so as to hover over the water. However, some prior approaches only momentarily lifted the inflatable towable devices off of the surface of the water and did not maintain the devices in the air for extended distances. Still other prior approaches did not provide towable devices that were capable of being controlled in a stable, reliable manner by a user once the devices were lifted off of the water.